Acts of Care: Nurturing the Present, Shaping the Future
Type
Exhibition
Category
Mixed Media, Other
Status
Open for Applications
Deadline
May 21, 2025
Application Fee
$35
Host
Veronica Clements
Location
Chicago, United States
The Ways We Care
Cultivating, tending, tracking, nurturing, repairing, and maintaining. All are words and actions that conjure the love and attention – and the worries and struggles – that go into care, whether for ourselves, others, our families, and our communities.
Building from a rich feminist art history centered around a politics of care (e.g. Wages for Housework, Maintenance Art, and Mother Art, c. 1970s), this exhibition defines care expansively while taking it as the base of our collective life. From child rearing to mobilizing a grassroots social movement, to care for someone or something is to imagine and invest in the present for the sake of a better future, however big or banal.
This exhibition also recognizes the gendered, ableist, classed, and racialized terms of care, and the often-invisible nature of care work as work. As such, this exhibition gives space to see and explore different experiences and interpretations of care, including but not limited to reproductive labor, affective labor, domestic work, care work, and/or any facet of social, political, cultural, and ecological caretaking.
About the Juror:
Kristen Carter is an assistant professor of art history at Florida Southern College. She holds a PhD in modern and contemporary art from the University of British Columbia and a BA in art history from DePaul University. Her research concerns different modes of relationality, care, and institutional critique with an emphasis on artistic praxis and pedagogy in the 1960s and 1970s. She has presented and published on a range of topics, including performance, body art, and dance, histories of art and pedagogy in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and the changing relationship between art and politics. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the University of British Columbia and the Getty Research Institute.
Committed to collaborative and inclusive pedagogy, Carter serves on the College Art Association’s Education Committee, advocating for undergraduate research and innovative teaching.
Calendar:
Exhibition Dates: July 12 – August 16, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12 from 4 to 7 PM CST
Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, August 16 from 2 to 4 PM CST
First Entry Due Date: May 14, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
Extended Due Date : May 21, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
Notification: May 30, 2025
Entry Fee: The entry fee is $35. Each entry requires a minimum of one artwork, though up to three artworks may be considered per submission. Entry fees are non-refundable. Members at the Enhanced Artist Level ($100) and above receive one free entry annually. Please email general@womanmade.org to receive your one-time code for free entry redemption.
Eligibility: Woman Made Gallery is a space for women and nonbinary artists, including trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists. We welcome art from women and non-binary artists from our local community, regionally based, and around the world.
Art Sales: Accepted work may be listed for sale or be not for sale (NFS). WMG will retain a 40% commission on sold works. Work remains the property of the artist until sold. Sold artworks shall remain in the exhibition until the end of the exhibition. Artists will be paid no later than 30 days after the close of the exhibit. Artists may donate any portion of their commission to WMG.
Terms of Exhibition: An artist contract with full terms of the exhibition will be administered at the time of acceptance notification. Artists need to retrieve their work by the date noted in the artist contract or make alternate arrangements. WMG is unable to store work beyond the pick-up date. Artists may donate their art to WMG's fundraising efforts if unable to pick it up. WMG is happy to talk through preparations, offer advice, and recommend resources as requested.
Cultivating, tending, tracking, nurturing, repairing, and maintaining. All are words and actions that conjure the love and attention – and the worries and struggles – that go into care, whether for ourselves, others, our families, and our communities.
Building from a rich feminist art history centered around a politics of care (e.g. Wages for Housework, Maintenance Art, and Mother Art, c. 1970s), this exhibition defines care expansively while taking it as the base of our collective life. From child rearing to mobilizing a grassroots social movement, to care for someone or something is to imagine and invest in the present for the sake of a better future, however big or banal.
This exhibition also recognizes the gendered, ableist, classed, and racialized terms of care, and the often-invisible nature of care work as work. As such, this exhibition gives space to see and explore different experiences and interpretations of care, including but not limited to reproductive labor, affective labor, domestic work, care work, and/or any facet of social, political, cultural, and ecological caretaking.
About the Juror:
Kristen Carter is an assistant professor of art history at Florida Southern College. She holds a PhD in modern and contemporary art from the University of British Columbia and a BA in art history from DePaul University. Her research concerns different modes of relationality, care, and institutional critique with an emphasis on artistic praxis and pedagogy in the 1960s and 1970s. She has presented and published on a range of topics, including performance, body art, and dance, histories of art and pedagogy in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and the changing relationship between art and politics. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the University of British Columbia and the Getty Research Institute.
Committed to collaborative and inclusive pedagogy, Carter serves on the College Art Association’s Education Committee, advocating for undergraduate research and innovative teaching.
Calendar:
Exhibition Dates: July 12 – August 16, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12 from 4 to 7 PM CST
Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, August 16 from 2 to 4 PM CST
First Entry Due Date: May 14, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
Extended Due Date : May 21, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
Notification: May 30, 2025
Entry Fee: The entry fee is $35. Each entry requires a minimum of one artwork, though up to three artworks may be considered per submission. Entry fees are non-refundable. Members at the Enhanced Artist Level ($100) and above receive one free entry annually. Please email general@womanmade.org to receive your one-time code for free entry redemption.
Eligibility: Woman Made Gallery is a space for women and nonbinary artists, including trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists. We welcome art from women and non-binary artists from our local community, regionally based, and around the world.
Art Sales: Accepted work may be listed for sale or be not for sale (NFS). WMG will retain a 40% commission on sold works. Work remains the property of the artist until sold. Sold artworks shall remain in the exhibition until the end of the exhibition. Artists will be paid no later than 30 days after the close of the exhibit. Artists may donate any portion of their commission to WMG.
Terms of Exhibition: An artist contract with full terms of the exhibition will be administered at the time of acceptance notification. Artists need to retrieve their work by the date noted in the artist contract or make alternate arrangements. WMG is unable to store work beyond the pick-up date. Artists may donate their art to WMG's fundraising efforts if unable to pick it up. WMG is happy to talk through preparations, offer advice, and recommend resources as requested.